Benefits of teaching

[KingMonkey]

Those of you who teach what do you think are the benefits to your WC if any ?

[old jong]

I got their money and their souls!.....They bow before me!....






























































;) :D :D

[anerlich]

They are your slaves to do with as you will. You control their minds, steal their souls and march to fame, riches and glory on a road made from their crushed bones.

Seriously, it stops you from being a selfish **** whose only concern is his own ability and progress. It forces you to go deeper into your system so as to be better able to explain and demonstrate it to students. It makes you stay sharp so as to be able to maintain authority, and to effortlessly and ruthlessly crush the challengers from other systems or lineages when they foolishly appear at your academy door (sorry, I'm getting excited :D ). It keeps you disciplined, since you HAVE to turn up to class if you're teaching it. It gives you greater self control, as you have to keep whatever else is going on in your life out of that class.

[KingMonkey]

And what if you already have self control and discipline, are only interested in your own ability and progress and feel quite happy and content with that attitude.
What benefit then ?

[wingtsunmonk]

KM,

Let me draw an analogy from my grad school tutoring days. During some research I did on learning and tutoring, I found out the percentage of long term memory retention while learning new material. (It's been awhile so the percentages may be slightly off)

It was said that if you only listen to the new material, your long term memory retention of the material would be about 55%.

If you listened and applied the new material, your long term memory retention would be about 60-65%.

Now if you listened, applied, and then tried to teach someone else the new material your long term memory retention would be about 90-95%.

I've kept this philosiphy with me and sometimes suprise myself at the things I've remembered after a long period of time.

Hope this helps. :D
Regards,
WingTsunMonk

[anerlich]

And what if you already have self control and discipline, are only interested in your own ability and progress and feel quite happy and content with that attitude.

Then teaching is unlikely to have any upside (other than a few extra bucks maybe) for you. Why would you want to teach?

And with that attitude, how many would want you as their teacher?

[Wingman]

Originally posted by KingMonkey
Those of you who teach what do you think are the benefits to your WC if any ?

To teach is to learn twice.

[taltos]

Apologies up front if my train of thought fails me... had all four wisdom teeth extracted 11 hours ago, and I'm a little loopy on painkillers...

For me, teaching (both as an older brother in a supervised/overseen environment and on my own) has made my kung fu so much better. Not only have I found through personal experience that anerlich's character development occurs, and that wingtsunmonk's statistics appear to be dead on, but I have also discovered that those I am teaching are guarenteed to bring prior personal experience that I had never had, ask questions that I had never thought of, and experience their learning in a manner that I had not experienced.

How does that help me? It forces me to look at a thing (that I already "understand") from many different angles that I had not yet done, which either gives or reinforces a more complete picture of the thing. It sort of makes me look objectively at the entire exchange of me and the student, and I notice things about them and myself that transend simple combat that sometimes strength, speed, or the like can obscure in the heat of the moment.

I do believe that it is certainly possible to not be a fully independent, school-operating Sifu and still gain this experience if you assist a lot at your school and make time for your sidaimui. I also believe that it is possible to get those things without ever assisting in instruction (say if you are leaqrning one on one). I just feel it will be more difficult to get as much out of it as if you engage in teaching activities.

-Levi (now back to my couch and my television).

[KingMonkey]

Thanks for the responses guys some good stuff about reinforcing the learning of material .....

I actually dont want to teach. Unfortunately I currently feel a bit of pressure to start assisting soon.

[kj]

Originally posted by KingMonkey
I actually dont want to teach. Unfortunately I currently feel a bit of pressure to start assisting soon.

If you don't want to teach, then you really aren't the right person for that role. It takes a whole lot more than technical skills to be a good, or even a fair teacher. You would no doubt learn a lot in the process, as so many others have already suggested. The flip side is, teaching isn’t all about the teacher. A reluctant, or worse a resentful teacher, won't do justice to the learners relying on them.

It would be “nice” if teaching happened to be something you wanted to experience. However, it's far more important, IMO, that you have the maturity to be honest with yourself and others if you don't.

It’s a mistake for someone to pressure you to teach if you don't want to. If you like, feel free to tell them I said so. Like they’ll care, LOL. :p

Having said all of that, for those who do have a heart for it - or at least willing to give it an honest go - there are few things in this life more rewarding and fulfilling as to help someone else to learn. Teaching is a great privilege, with or without titles to accompany it.

Regards,
- Kathy Jo